Huge thanks to Harriet at Random House for sending me a copy to review.
Release Date: 9th July 2012
Four
decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and
dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons
attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to
universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near,
however, tensions are high.
Seraphina Dombegh
has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the
court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously
draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with
the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian
Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the
peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her
musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.
In her exquisitely
written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly
original world. Seraphina's tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers
will remember long after they've turned the final page.
I never fully expected Seraphina to capture me quite as it
did. I was anticipating likeing it, to enjoy reading it, but it was one of those
unexpected surprises that creeps up on you and becomes a little part of your
soul whilst you read. I closed the book and sat with it in my hands, and wanted
nothing more than to open it again at the beginning and start again. It has
tailed me round for days after I’ve finished it, dogging my thoughts until I
may well cave and go back to absorb the world of Seraphina again.
‘…as
if I have intuited the One Equation, seen the numbers behind the moon and
stars, behind mountains and history, art and death and yearning, as if my
comprehension is large enough that it can encompass universes, from beginning
to the end of time.’
It didn’t get off to the best start with me, taking its time
to draw me in. There’s a fair amount of scene setting and backstory to get
through which Hartman handles deftly. Not so much that the reader is
overwhelmed though, in fact she pitches it just right to give the reader enough to go
on without throwing every piece of information to us about the world we’re
stepping into.
In fact there was quite a lot that I didn’t know about and that I
wanted to find out more, but because some of these things are such a regular part of
Seraphina’s world we don’t get any explanation, they are just there, everyday and normal for her. I’d love to find out so
much more about the world. It whet my appetite and left me desperate for more,
whereas I normally leave fantasy books feeling like my brain is saturated with
excess information.
The world itself is incredible, it’s so rich and vibrant and
detailed, and yet at the same time the reader is not treated like an outsider,
the bare basics are explained and the rest you’re expected to pick up as you go
along – which delighted me more than I can express. I love books that don’t attempt
to spoon feed the reader.
It’s a challenging world with so much vivid life spilling out
from the pages, so much to hold together to weave into a narrative, and yet
Hartman tackles it with ease and skill. I was impressed and completely engrossed
in the story. In this new world, in the politics and the religion and the
intrigue, and of course the dragons. I loved the dragons. We as humans are
always attempting to humanize other creatures, to make them easier to comprehend, to make them emotional and easily understandable. And Hartman doesn’t
at all. They are a species apart. Yes there are bridges between the two, they
are more similar than they would probably care to admit, but I was impressed that these dragons were just that, they had an entirely different
mind-set and pattern of thought and construct and emotion. It was fascinating
to read and an incredible feat of writing to keep them so separate and yet to
still make them relatable and fascinating to the reader.
The writing was fantastic. At times painfully beautiful, with
a lyrical quality that has knocked Hartman up into one of my favourite writers.
I found myself doing something I never do with books – folding down corners of
pages to mark passages that I particularly loved.
‘I
became the very air; I was full of stars. I was the soaring spaces between the
spires of the cathedral, the solemn breath of chimneys, a whispered prayer upon
the winter wind. I was silence, and I was music, one clear transcendent chord
rising toward Heaven.’
I loved the characters, as I’ve touched on talking about the
dragons, they were incredibly constructed, real and lifelike and utterly flawed
and completely fantastic as a result. I loved Seraphina from the start, and the
secondary characters quickly fell in behind her to create a fantastic cast to
lead me through the book. She was such a likeable heroine - she was flawed and self concious and full of fear, but at the same time incredibly brave and kind and strong. She was a fantastic role model and I loved her determination to do what was right, and to protect those she loved.
I adored Kiggs and the strange friendship that develops between him and Seraphina, the odd philosophical discussions and
moments of candid frankness with the other.
‘The
world inside myself is vaster and richer than this paltry plain, peopled with
mere galaxies and gods.’
And then we come to the plot, which had me guessing and
second guessing myself right the way through. This was no simple straight line
from A to B, this was a fantastic journey through foothills and mountains with
so many different threads and characters and storylines that I had no idea
where we were heading, but settled in and just enjoyed the ride. It set
everything up so fantastically for the next book in the series, it felt almost
like a prelude to the main event, but in no way any less enjoyable or
diminished as a result. I loved every moment of the journey and will quite
happily go back and revisit it again and again until I have more to read from
Hartman!
‘I
feel this music in my very blood. This is what it means to be me, right here,
right now, solid flesh, ethereal air, eternal motion. I feel this, and it is
true beyond truth.’
I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves a
fantastically written book – never mind the fantasy elements and the dragons.
Read this for the writing, for the fantastic plot and the brilliantly written
characters. Yes the dragons and fantasy provide an extra element to the book,
and a fantastic one at that, but Hartman is a new force to be reckoned with if
her debut writing is anything to go by, and I recommend getting in and reading
this before this book sweeps the masses and you’re left behind.
‘We
were all monsters and bastards, and we were all beautiful.’
If you’re interested and would like to be in with a chance of
winning a brand spanking new ARC of Seraphina, you can enter my giveaway here!
